ArticleJMIR medical informatics2019
How Online Reviews and Services Affect Physician Outpatient Visits: Content Analysis of Evidence From Two Online Health Care Communities.
Article in JMIR medical informatics, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Examining Different Factors in Web-Based Patients' Decision-Making Process: Systematic Review on Digital Platforms for Clinical Decision Support System.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- The Relationship Between Physician Self-Disclosure and Patient Acquisition in Digital Health Markets: Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Observational
- Deciphering patient selection of physicians in online health communities: insights from a dual-path perspective.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Article
- What Key Factors Affect Patient Satisfaction on Online Medical Consultation Platforms? A Case Study from China.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Impact of Internet Hospital Consultations on Outpatient Visits and Expenses: Quasi-Experimental Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- A Systematic Review of Online Medical Consultation Research.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Article
- Effect of Negative Online Reviews and Physician Responses on Health Consumers' Choice: Experimental Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- Consulting doctors online after offline treatment: investigating the effects of online information on patients' effective use of online follow-up services.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- The Impact of Ambivalent Attitudes on the Helpfulness of Web-Based Reviews: Secondary Analysis of Data From a Large Physician Review Website.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Review
- Research on Influencing Factors of Satisfaction with the Use of Public Health Internet Platform: Evidence from Ding Xiang Doctor (DXY) Internet Medical Platform.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Has COVID-19 changed carer's views of health and care integration in care homes? A sentiment difference-in-difference analysis of on-line service reviews.Health policy (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2022Article
- Explore How Online Healthcare Can Influence Willingness to Seek Offline Care.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- The Mediating Role of Patients' Trust Between Web-Based Health Information Seeking and Patients' Uncertainty in China: Cross-sectional Web-Based Survey.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Article
- How does physicians' educational knowledge-sharing influence patients' engagement? An empirical examination in online health communities.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Comparing the Impact of Online Ratings and Report Cards on Patient Choice of Cardiac Surgeon: Large Observational Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Observational
- Exploring the Impact of Linguistic Signals Transmission on Patients' Health Consultation Choice: Web Mining of Online Reviews.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- The Impact of Signals Transmission on Patients' Choice through E-Consultation Websites: An Econometric Analysis of Secondary Datasets.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- The Influence of Doctors' Online Reputation on the Sharing of Outpatient Experiences: Empirical Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOnline healthcare communities are changing the ways of physician-patient communication and how patients choose outpatient care physicians. Although a majority of empirical work has examined the role of online reviews in consumer decisions, less research has been done in health care, and endogeneity of online reviews has not been fully considered. Moreover, the important factor of physician online services has been neglected in patient decisions.
objectiveIn this paper, we addressed the endogeneity of online reviews and examined the impact of online reviews and services on outpatient visits based on theories of reviews and channel effects.
methodsWe used a difference-in-difference approach to account for physician- and website-specific effects by collecting information from 474 physician homepages on two online health care communities.
resultsWe found that the number of reviews was more effective in influencing patient decisions compared with the overall review rating. An improvement in reviews leads to a relative increase in physician outpatient visits on that website. There are channel effects in health care: online services complement offline services (outpatient care appointments). Results further indicate that online services moderate the relationship between online reviews and physician outpatient visits.
conclusionsThis study investigated the effect of reviews and channel effects in health care by conducting a difference-in-difference analysis on two online health care communities. Our findings provide basic research on online health care communities.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.